It was established in 2010 in the Year of the Iron Tiger and the school mascot is the tiger. The 8 acre campus is just minutes from the centre of the capital city yet it enjoys the quiet of a rural setting.
The School recognizes the importance of academic achievement but also emphasizes active participation in all sports and extra-curricular activities for all students. The School also recognizes the challenges families face especially in the context of Bhutan’s rapid and continuing transformation. The School therefore aspires to do all it can for its students including drawing in greater and more positive involvement of their parents.
The School also aspires to cultivate and retain an outstanding and committed faculty and provide programs that keep students engaged and also inspired. A good faculty is a good school’s greatest asset.
Pelkhil is a co-educational, non-residential school for students from pre-primary (age 5) to grade 12 (age 17 approximately). We have received permission to introduce residential facilities and we will do so once our plans are ready.
Our student body consists of children of middle-class businessmen, civil servants and ordinary citizens. We have many students on academic and sports scholarship. In 2016, the Ministry of Education gave Pelkhil School the ‘most improved’ award for academics in both the grade X BCSE and grade XII BHSEC examinations. In sports, the School has been dominating the scene in most major sports. In 2016 the School teams completely swept all the trophies in the inter-school sports carnival.
Students at Pelkhil prepare for the BCSE and BHSEC examinations for grades X and XII conducted by Bhutan Council for School Examinations and Assessment. We have also received approval to introduce Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) at Pelkhil and we have begun to prepare to for affiliation. In the Primary Wing, we have already introduced the Cambridge Primary syllabus with supplementary Cambridge text and curriculum.
Employment
A school’s faculty is the single most important asset of a school. Pelkhil School strives to recruit the best teachers for the benefit of all our students. To apply for a position, all applicants must have:
A proper teaching certificate (B.Ed, M.Ed, PGDE etc);
- The required number of years of teaching experience as advertised;
- Good marks in BCSE and BHSEC (or equivalent) in the related subject;
- Expat applicants must submit notarized copies of certificates and CV.
We also look for the following qualities:
- A good command over the English language
- A passion for teaching with the energy to match.
Why Work at Pelkhil
The brain-drain facing the teaching community in Bhutan is a sign of the times. The status of the teaching profession is declining. The public are ever ready to find fault with teachers and schools. Such public dissatisfaction is however not without basis.
The teaching profession, which in Bhutan is dominated by the government school system, is becoming ‘bureaucratized’ where the rules of the civil service govern the roles of the teachers. Teachers, being civil servants seem to be automatically ‘tenured’, and with this permanent job security, the pressure to do one’s best is deflated. As one teacher once put it, in the public system, ‘donkeys and horses’ are treated at par, and there is no discriminating reward for good performance.
It is our aspiration to change this trend and bring back the old status that teachers used to enjoy. This means teachers should not only receive emoluments that are respectable and in keeping with the responsibilities, but it also means that teachers should themselves respect the profession live up to its high standards.
We are confident that in time, we will successfully resurrect the special status of the teaching profession. Teachers who join our team will rediscover the inspiration that first drew them to teaching.
